Writings and Musings of Paul West

Hey hey, to all my faithful followers and family. Sorry for taking so long to get back to writing in this blog.

Today, I thought I'd touch on a huge mistake I often see writers make, that being the lack of capturing the reader's attention early on in the book. As I begin reading a new novel, I see a lot of back story and setting descriptions that are, may I say BOOOORRRRIIIINNNNGGGG. That is tantamount to telling the reader to give up now before it gets any worse. I mean how do you expect a person to keep reading if you turn them off in the first page or two?

Rule of thumb, your opening paragraph should plunge your POV character into some kind of terrible trouble in the first paragraph or first sentence, if possible. That doesn't necessarily mean a life or death situation; It could be some other kind of trouble. If you have ever read "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott you'll find the girls' terrible trouble was that Christmas was coming and their father was away from home with the Union Army during the Civil War, and they had no money for gifts for their mother let along to each other. A heart-wrenching scenario.

When I wrote my published novel, "BRIDGETOWN HIGH," I went through several opening scenes before settling on the one I finally chose where my POV and MC character, Mark, was bemoaning the deaths of his parents and kid sister, who all died in a fiery crash on the Carquinez Bridge in Northern California. To make matters worse, though he was in the crash, he doesn't remember it, but nevertheless, he vows to find the hit-and-run driver who caused the accident.

From the first terrible trouble, the novel or story builds from that, scene by scene, until the climax at the end.

Does your story start and build like that? If not, you might want to take a closer look at it. Nothing turns a reader off like a milk toast opening of setting descriptions and back story. Get the story going first, then you can add that stuff between the lines as the story develops. Good luck with it and if you need some help, feel free to email me at paulwwest@yahoo.com, or find and Friend me on FaceBook.

BRIDGETOWN HIGH is a perfect read for teens and baby boomers alike. Just click on this https://www.amazon.com/dp/1680583093 and it will take you to my book's Amazon page.

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Hi, all my great friends and followers.

The photo with this post was taken by an unknown photographer of the front of the high school that is the setting for much of my novel BRIDGETOWN HIGH.

A looooong time ago (I won't say how long) I took a college creative
writing course. The professor gave us many techniques to create
believable characters, settings, etc., and to create a plot. Since it's
been so many years, I've forgotten most of what I learned there, though
I'm sure I have internalized most of it anyway, but one thing that still
sticks out at me is what he made us do for the final test. It was a
"blue-book" essay, or rather short story writing final. He wrote one
sentence on the chalk board, obscure, seemingly meaningless, and told us
that it had to be the first sentence in our story. Then he wrote
another sentence, seemingly unrelated and equally obscure, and told us
it had to be the last sentence in our story. Our task was to fill in the
middle and make it sound logical. It had to be 500 words. It was tough. I struggled with it for
nearly 20 minutes. Then I outlined what I thought could be a possible
connection between the two sentences, then wrote the story. It took me
about an hour to write it (we had an hour-and-a-half), but I got an "A" on the final, and in the class.

I only
mention that because I've found it to be one technique in creating a
plot -- know the beginning and know where you want to end up. Then,
connect the dots. Do I get side-tracked? Sure. But I make sure all the
stray plot lines eventually come home again, and I make sure they really
contribute to the overall theme of the story I'm writing. If not, they
get cut.

Yes, I write a rudimentary outline of the plot in
paragraph form, and I try to keep to it, but sometimes I have to modify
it. But that's okay. As they say, "Rome wasn't built in a day."

If you want to see what has become of using that technique, get a copy of BRIDGETOWN HIGH and read it. You can either get an electronic (Kindle) copy or paperback copy at Amazon. Or, if you are reading this post on FaceBook, check out my blog at www.paulwwest.com.

After reading my book, it would be great, and helpful, if you would write a short review on Amazon and Goodreads. Many thanks.

I thought today I would talk a little bit about creating memorable characters.

I suppose everyone has a slightly different
technique in getting to know their characters. Mine is probably as
unique as anyone's.

My novel "BRIDGETOWN HIGH" is character
driven. I prefer to write and read this kind of fiction. If one writes
plot-driven stories, a strong well-defined character isn't always needed
and may even get in the way of the suspenseful plot. But in
character-driven fiction, it's imperative to know your characters, how
they think, how they react to circumstances, their background, goals,
fears, loves, hates, etc.

When I began writing my novel, I
tried to create characters using the personality traits of people I
knew. Of course, I had to modify them so the actual people wouldn't
recognize themselves. As I did this, I tried to get into their heads. I
tried to imagine myself in their shoes. How would I think, act, react,
feel, etc., if I were them? From trying to empathize with my
characters, I've been able to write not only from the protagonist's
point of view, but also from the antagonist's. I think my main
antagonist is as real as my protagonists. My female characters are as
real to me as the male characters. I know it's perhaps difficult for a
man to think like a female, and vice-versa, but I think it can be done
if we're truly sympathetic and empathetic to what makes the opposite sex
tick.

Try this in your writing. It makes your work stand out and enjoyable to read. If you want some good examples, check out "BRIDGETOWN HIGH." It's garnered several great reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

While I've been gone for several weeks, a question was raised, should novel endings always be happy?

Happy
or sad, I think isn't the proper question. In my opinion, the story's
ending must resolve satisfactorily all the questions and problems that
have been posed.

Right now, I'm struggling with the ending of my
next novel BRIDGETOWN MURDERS. Should I let the heroine live or die?

If my heroine dies, it would be horrible, heart
wrenching, but a realistic outcome of all that had gone on before. But
would it solve the main problem, that of my hero overcoming his phobia?
As one critiquer suggested, having her die on the bridge would likely
make his phobia worse.

If she lives, however, I fear it could
read too much like a cheap romance novel, all hearts and flowers, and
would not be realistic. But it could have the effect of helping the hero
to overcome his phobia, assuming I can write the ending well enough.

Either
way, I don't think the question of whether happy versus sad endings is
important, as long as it is satisfying. If the reader cries out buckets
of tears over the ending, then I as a writer have succeeded in my main
purpose, that being to entertain my readers.

While you are pondering that issue, you can read what led up to this question in my novel BRIDGETOWN HIGH. You can find it in Amazon in either paperback or kindle.

Welcome to all my faithful followers and newbies, who have only recently found me on this page. For those who are new to my blog, a bit about me. I fancy myself as a fiction writer and will
post my thoughts on several issues including fiction writing and marketing.

I live in Utah and until recently worked as an environmental biologist.
Over the years, I’ve completed a novel-length manuscript titled BRIDGETOWN HIGH. While I’m trying to market it, I’ve begun another I'm giving it the working title of BRIDGETOWN MURDERS. Both of these novels are targeted toward young adults and so-called baby boomers - I know, a weird combination, but it works.

I grew up in a small town in California's San Francisco Bay Area
called Port Costa, and even though I now live in Utah, I still claim to be a native Californian. We liked to joke that Port Costa has a population of 150 if you
count the dogs and cats. It’s a picturesque old Huckle Berry Finn kind of town with a colorful
history and picturesque countryside. It's from this town that I get a lot of my writing inpiration.

One day, I came across a
wonderful site http://www.claytonbailey.com/skycam.htm. The owner of the
site, Clayton Bailey, is a resident of Port Costa and seems to share my
love of the town and it’s environs. He’s posted pictures of the
countryside, the town, and occasionally some of the townsfolk, many of
whom I still recall from my childhood. I occasionally refer to his site as I
write about the town in which I once lived.

The rustic San
Francisco Bay Area countryside, the quaint small town in which I grew
up, the colorful people, all have teamed to fertilize my mind with
stories that are screaming to be told. From my high school days, my
English teachers saw some sort of raw writing ability in me, both for fiction
and non-fiction. In college, my professors seemed to see the same
ability and encouraged me to mold that ability into a talent. I like to
flatter myself into thinking I have done that.

After settling on
my career as an environmental biologist, the stories swarming through my head kept crying to get out.
So several years ago I began writing my pubfiction, but only as a hobby at
first. But now, it’s became an obsession, and 2 1/2 years ago I finally got published through Limitless Publishing, LLC. Since then, it has become a run away best seller, at least among my friends.

In addition to my writing, my wife
and I enjoy spending time with our four children and 18 grandchildren. I
also love gardening, researching my family history, and reading good
books.

I hope you will enjoy this blog as I try to give some writerly tips I've found over the years.

How did your holidays go? I hope it went well for all of you and you got everything your heart desired. Now that the holidays are over, it's time to get back to work on that novel you're writing (and I'm writing too).

Right now, I'm in the process of retiring from my day-job, so writing my novels will become my new day-job, and I should be able to devote more time to my writing.

I would like to make this blog interactive. If you have any questions or comments about writing, please send them to me and I'll try to respond as best I can. Sure, there are a lot of better writers than me, but will they spend the time with your questions like I will? Or they will charge you hundreds of dollars to join one of the many writing groups for information I can give for free.

I say, there are better writers, but that may be up to you, the reader. My first novel "BRIDGETOWN HIGH," received many high reviews (4.43 in Goodreads and 4.2 in Amazon). That's as good as I've found for any of the top 100 writers. In fact, I got a compliment just today from a reader who has begun reading BRIDGETOWN HIGH. She said the opening chapter held her spellbound, and it only gets better as you read on.

Well, that's it for today. Please send me your writing and/or reading questions, and please add your email address to this blog so you can be aware of future developments and release dates.

This week, I thought I'd get back to teaching about the subject you are most likely here for -- to learn about what it takes to become a published author.

As I read recently written novels, most unpublished, I'm still seeing what I railed on earlier in this series, that being about the lack of capturing the reader's attention early on in the book. I see a lot of back story and setting descriptions that are, may I say BOOOORRRRIIIINNNNGGGG. That is tantamont to telling the reader to give up now before it gets worse. I mean how do you expect a person to keep reading if you turn them off in the first page or two?

Rule of thumb, your opening paragraph should plunge your POV character into some kind of terrible trouble in the first paragraph or first sentence, if possible. That doesn't necessarily mean a life or death situation. It could be some other kind of trouble. If you have ever read "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott you'll find the girls' terrible trouble was that Christmas was coming and their father was away from home with the Union Army during the Civil War, and they had no money for gifts for their mother let along to each other. A heart wrenching scenario.

When I wrote my novel, "Bridgetown High," I went through several opening scenes before settling on the one I finally chose where my POV and MC character, Mark, was bemoaning the deaths of his parents and kid sister, who all died in a fiery crash on the Carquinez Bridge in Northern California. To make matters worse, though he was in the crash, he doesn't remember it, but nevertheless he vows to find the hit-and-run driver who caused the accident.

From the first terrible trouble, the novel or story builds from that, scene by scene until the climax at the end.

Does your story start and build like that? If not, you might want to take a closer look at it. Nothing turns a reader off like a milk toast opening of setting descriptions and back story. Get the story going first, then you can add that stuff between the lines and the story develops. Good luck with it and if you need some help, feel free to email me at paulwwest@yahoo.com or find me on FaceBook.

In case I don't get back to you until after New Years, I wish you wonderful holidays. Keep in mind, my novel would make a wonderful gift for teens and baby boomers alike. Just click on this https://www.amazon.com/dp/1680583093 and it will take you to my book's Amazon page.